- Stewart L. Burgess, Ph.D. is the developmental psychologist and executive director at the Children’s Museum of Memphis.
Summer learning loss is real and can be a serious problem, but it doesn’t have to affect your child. Researchers have studied this topic for years, documenting average losses that can be disheartening. Recent large-scale research by the University of Colorado-Boulder and RAND Corporation tracked 200 million test scores across 7,500 school districts. Some districts continued to gain knowledge and skills during the break, while others lost nearly all the progress made during the school year.
The good news is summer doesn’t have to be a time of learning loss for children! Environmental factors such as parental expectations and involvement in children’s summer learning appear to be among the influences preventing students from losing the knowledge they have acquired.
Parents can make the summer months count in simple ways
Set a time every day for your child to complete academic work and make it fun with challenging math games or by trading characters with your child during daily reading. Work with your child on their writing skills daily to help them become confident and strong in that area.
Whether your children are only old enough to label a drawing of going to the park with a “P” or old enough to write a detailed and descriptive page, this can make a big difference in creating a pattern of growth rather than decline. If you want to help your children get ahead, inquire about upcoming skills they will work on and start some strategic practice.
For example, if you find that multiplication tables are one of the skills your child will learn in the next grade, start memorizing them early. When children return to school and find they already know some of that “hard stuff,” they will gain confidence in their learning abilities, which gives parents and teachers opportunities to congratulate them on their efforts and successes.
Engage with your child in their academic work and show interest
By asking your children about their work, you are giving them attention and emphasizing the importance of their tasks. If you are traveling, take advantage of downtime in the car, trips to new places, or waiting in restaurants to play Eye Spy, mental math games, or create stories together.
Talk with your children about their experiences and what they enjoyed or didn’t like about that experience. Take a walk in the park or around your neighborhood and ask your child about what they see, or have them draw what they saw on that walk. For example, if your child notices an interesting tree in the park, look up what that type of tree is and learn more about what makes it different from other trees.
We want our children to know that discovering and learning new things is exciting, and that makes learning in school less daunting. Even a little bit of regular work that is brief and fun can make a difference in securing your children’s futures and preparing them for the next school year.
Stewart L. Burgess, Ph.D. is the developmental psychologist and executive director at the Children’s Museum of Memphis.
Read More: How to keep academic achievement up during summer fun